The board of the Essex-Windsor Solid Waste Authority asked administration for a report on the possibility of accepting garbage from outside Essex County, shortly after passing its 2015 budget.

The budget, which included a 1.7 per cent increase, now must be approved by the City of Windsor and the seven county municipalities.

“It’s pretty clear there isn’t a lot of room for discretionary changes (in the budget) … really the only thing that stands out is the considerable revenue we could get by taking garbage from outside Essex County,” said Amherstburg Mayor Aldo DiCarlo, who asked for the report.

“I can appreciate the balance we have to maintain to not reduce the lifespan of the landfill,” DiCarlo said. “But (general manager Ilija Maodos) made it clear that with a minimal intake of garbage we could offset our costs over the next few years a considerable amount.”

Newly elected EWSWA chairman Ron McDermott agreed the board has to revisit the issue.

“If we were to take in 35,000 tonnes a year over five years, it would probably take one year off (the life of) our landfill,” McDermott said. “And $700,000 a year we would realize from that 35,000 tonnes, that’s a big chunk of money.”

Michelle Bishop, EWSWA manager of finance and administration, said increases to the consumer price index as well as debenture costs led to the levy increase but a favourable arbitration decision helped keep the increase down.

“The major cost driver for that increase is the landfill debenture cost,” Bishop said. “That cost has increased approximately $150,000 over the 2014 amount.”

But the authority will receive $500,000 more than expected in Stewardship Ontario funding for blue box recycling programs due to the arbitration decision.

The total waste management allocation is $10,425,000, compared to $10,250,000 in 2014, while the forecast for 2016 is approximately $10,900,000.

Most fees remain the same, except for a $1 increase in the residential flat fee for refuse, which will increase to $4 from $5 per load.

Red wigglers. Usually these composting worms from Europe and Africa sell for $50 a pound but for next week’s Waste Reduction Week you can get some for $10 a pound.

“They eat their body weight in food scraps per day,” the authority’s community relations and advertising co-ordinator Cathie Griffin said Thursday.

Red wigglers eat fruit and veggies, like being in the dark and the authority will show you how to make a worm home out of a rubber tote box. She feeds her worms dryer lint and shredded newspapers along with kitchen waste.

These worms can’t take the cold so they aren’t for people who have backyard composters but they’re great for people who live in apartments, she said.

The authority is asking people to register for the worm composting demonstrations and to buy worms Oct. 24 by calling 1-800-563-3377.

Waste reduction by the numbers:

77 – Percentage of garbage that could be diverted from the landfill by recycling, composting and using the public drop off depot. Almost 40 per cent of our garbage is kitchen waste which we could be composting and 22 per cent is paper even though it can be recycled. “We could be doing a lot more,” Griffin said.

66 million – Did you know that Windsorites use 208 plastic bags per person per year? Griffin said that ends up being more than 66 million plastic bags that end of in the landfill each year.

12 – Griffin said only 12 per cent of aluminum foil, trays and pans are being recycled. They don’t want your lasagna in the pan but the aluminum does not have to be cleaned. She said roll your aluminum foil into a ball and pitch it in your recycle box.

Free stuff during waste reduction week (Oct. 20 to 26)

Monday: Get a free mini battery box to hold your old batteries by bringing in batteries, old cellphones, leftover paint or chemical waste to the public drop off depot at 3560 North Service Road East near E.C. Row and Central Avenue from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Tuesday: Get a free reusable grocery bag while supplies last at the Superstore at 4371 Walker Road from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and learn how to reduce your grocery waste.

Wednesday: Authority staff will be at the downtown main library talking about recycling from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Thursday: The first 100 vehicles with a donation to Goodwill which is located at the public drop off depot before the weigh scale will receive a free recycle box beginning at 9 a.m.

Friday: Backyard composters will be on sale at the public drop off depot for $15 beginning at 9 a.m. There will be worm composting demonstrations but you have to register ahead to buy worms at 1-800-563-3377.

Saturday: There will be free shredding of documents from 9 a.m. to noon but it’s for residents only, not businesses. If you shred your own documents at home put them in the bottom of your recycle box so they don’t blow away or put them in a clear plastic bag.

shill@windsorstar.com

]]>http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/want-worms-theyre-coming-for-waste-reduction-week/feed0These are Red Wigglers, worms used for composting. (Courtesy of Essex-Windsor Solid Waste Authority)winstarhillHarnessing methane gas still a priority for solid waste authorityhttp://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/harnessing-methane-gas-still-a-priority-for-solid-waste-authority
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/harnessing-methane-gas-still-a-priority-for-solid-waste-authority#commentsThu, 10 Jul 2014 00:49:06 +0000http://blogs.windsorstar.com/?p=363093]]>Turning methane gas into electricity while generating revenue continues to be a priority for the Essex-Windsor Solid Waste Authority, its general manager says.

GM Eli Maodus said Wednesday the provincial government is expected to respond in October to applications for qualifications for EWSWA projects.

Maodus said the authority’s goal for the past 10 years has been to convert the methane gas that’s generated by the regional landfill on County Road 18 into electricity and feed that back into the grid.

File photo of Eli Maodus. (Windsor Star files)

“That would serve to earn a revenue for the authority as well as also do something environmentally sound with the methane gas as opposed to having it just vent into the atmosphere as it is right now,” Maodus said.

The electricity needs to be sent to a nearby transformer and the capacity of the closest one in Kingsville has been taken up by solar and wind projects, he said of delays.

“So the province and the Ontario power authority needs to determine if there’s capacity in either that transformer station or any others that could accept the electricity that the landfill would generate,” he said.

Maodus said it’s uncertain at this point how much revenue the project would generate because the province is not saying what rate would be paid.

“Under this new large renewable procurement process the projects themselves have to say what amount they wish to receive. So the projects would be, in essence, bidding against each other.”Find Windsor Star on Facebook

The proposed amendments to the act that governs the province’s recycling program would force producers of products that use recycled containers – like canned food, soft drinks and newspapers – to be responsible for the “end-of-life” management of the packages, according to the Ministry of the Environment.

The changes are intended to increase recycling and shift the cost of recycled waste diversion from municipalities to the producers of the products, ministry documents say.

About 12 million tonnes of garbage are produced annually in Ontario, but only 25 per cent is diverted from landfills via recycling. Households recycle on average 46 per cent of waste, while businesses like shopping malls, hospitals and offices only recycle 13 per cent of their waste, according to the ministry.

The province says the push for more recycling will create jobs. But critics fear the changes will also result in higher prices for packaged products as the cost of managing the “end-of-life” of a product package is passed on to the consumer.

MPP Michael Harris (PC — Kitchener) said he “absolutely” believes that the price of products will go up. “The bill doesn’t deal with inefficiencies in the (Blue Box) system,” he said. “It shifts the tax bill to the shopping bill.”

Harris said the best way to make the provincial recycling system more efficient is to have the private sector manage the costs. “We know waste diversion rates need to come up,” he said. “(The bill) doesn’t address the core problems in the system. It doesn’t address the programs. It just shifts the costs around.”

The Food and Consumer Products of Canada, a trade organization representing food, beverage and consumer product manufacturers, doesn’t object to recycling more but has serious concerns about the proposed legislation.

“We are happy to pay our share and we are happy to be partners,” said Adam Grachnik, FCPC spokesman. “We are interested in increasing the diversion rate. We are committed to recycling.”

Grachnik said two major concerns with the bill are added costs to industry and control over the recycling program.

Currently, the Blue Box program costs package producers $104 million a year or the equivalent of 50 per cent of the cost that municipalities pay for picking up the recyclable material, after recycled materials are sold. Municipalities compete for the money and the most efficient systems get the largest reimbursements for costs.

Under the new law, consumer product manufacturers would pay the full cost of the Blue Box program, $208 million, with no oversight over the Blue Box program. Grachnik said he couldn’t predict the impact on consumer prices, but “higher costs to businesses are clear that could result from (changes to the act).”

In a letter to the province, Heinz Canada said the company is committed to waste diversion and supports the idea of producer responsibility.

But the company, which recently announced the closure of its Leamington plant in June, said the act doesn’t outline the impact of the legislation on the Ontario economy. Heinz also warned the new law could threaten the success of the Blue Box program and result in “a proliferation of multiple programs for different materials.”

The Essex-Windsor Solid Waste Authority also warned the province of a fragmented recycling system that could cost municipalities more. “You could have a newspaper group, a cardboard group, a cans group,” said Eli Maodus, general manager of the EWSWA. “We are saying we don’t want that.”

Over the past five years, Essex County municipalities paid $7.7 million to operate the Blue Box program. “Had this money been available locally it could have been put to use to either lower taxes or improve municipal infrastructure,” Maodus said in a letter to the province.

MPP Taras Natyshak (NDP — Essex) said the legislation is complex and he’s worried that the regulations that deal with the industrial, retail, hospital and school sectors have yet to be developed. He said there are a lot of unknowns in the legislation and he hopes that industry would look at reducing packaging so that it doesn’t become part of the waste stream at all.

“There are natural alternatives being developed,” he said. “There’s a farmer in Essex County who has developed an alternative to Styrofoam. He makes the packages from soy and they are fully biodegradable.”

Jim Bradley, minister of the environment, said in a letter to The Star that the legislation will prompt product producers to design packaging that is cheaper to recycle,”thereby lowering the costs of recycling the products.”

Bradley said there will be more public hearings to get feedback. “We will be consulting every step of the way,” he said. “Economic analysis will play an important part in this process to ensure that the benefits and costs are fully understood.”

John Hinds, CEO of Newspapers Canada, a trade group representing the newspaper industry, said 96 per cent of newspaper is recycled, so the changes to the act would do little to change the diversion rate for newspapers. Newspapers give municipalities or waste authorities the equivalent of $6 million in free ad space to promote recycling. If newspapers had to pick up the full cost of recycling newsprint, it would be unaffordable for the industry to stay in the Blue Box system, Hinds said.

“If costs get too high we might want to opt out of the Blue Box system,” Hinds said adding that newspapers already have a one-way delivery system in place and could collect used newspapers.

mwolfson@windsorstar.com or 519-255-5709 or follow me on Twitter @winstarmonica

]]>http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/recycling-changes-could-add-cost-to-products/feed0A special recycling type trash bin is pictured in downtown Windsor. Windsor Star files)winstarmonicaCounty council approves solid waste authority 2014 budgethttp://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/county-council-approves-solid-waste-authority-2014-budget
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/county-council-approves-solid-waste-authority-2014-budget#commentsThu, 19 Dec 2013 02:52:04 +0000http://blogs.windsorstar.com/?p=289636]]>Essex County council approved a 2014 budget for the solid waste authority that will see no change from 2013 in the municipal allocation.

Michelle Bishop, manager of finance and administration with the Essex-Windsor Solid Waste Authority, said the authority’s board approved a municipal total waste management allocation of $10.2 million, with $7 million allocated to municipalities based on population and $3,2 million assessed on a total waste management fee of $32.44 per tonne.

Bishop told council the $7-million figure is a fixed number invoiced to county municipalities and Windsor every month. The $3.2 million is based on refuse estimates from each of the municipalities.

She said in order to balance the 2014 budget, a $1,034,045 contribution from the authority’s rate stabilization reserve is necessary. Next year’s deficit is budgeted at $1,034,045.

The authority has a projected deficit of $612,545 for this year, approximately $131,000 above the budgeted amount.

Bishop said although the authority’s spending levels have been relatively consistent over the past few years, the non-municipal revenue stream has not. This includes the sale of blue box material and tipping fees from businesses.

“Blue box material sales are subject to supply and demand in the marketplace as well as fluctuating commodity prices,” Bishop said. “The majority of the revenue is earned from selling the old newspapers, aluminum cans and cardboard.

“Revenue has seen a stagnant, and at times decreasing, trend.”

She said pressures on tipping fees are due to local waste being dumped in Michigan and at some privately owned Ontario landfills that charge lower rates.

The authority is using reserves to moderate increases required from municipalities and forecasts a reduction from the current reserve balance of approximately $10 million to $4 million in 10 years.

Bishop said the forecast model projects assessments to Windsor and the seven Essex County municipalities will need to increase at a rate of four to five per cent annually to eliminate the annual operating deficits.

Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara said adjustments need to be made to the 10-year plan to address the continuing deficits.

“We’re supplementing the budget by using dollars that could be used in the future for other purposes,” McNamara said.

“To me it’s basically pushing this issue and the problems into the future. At some point in time we’re going to have to pay for it.”

Kingsville Mayor Nelson Santos agreed, saying it was “dangerous to continue to rely on reserves and not reflect the true costs” of this basic core service.

Staff will have to solicit enough business to raise $329,000 over the next year. Staff needs to bring in an extra 7,000 tonnes of garbage – a 13 per cent increase from last year. The garbage has to come from within Essex County.

Warden Tom Bain questioned whether this was a realistic expectation. EWSWA general manager Eli Maodus said he didn’t know how much extra garbage staff could bring in.

“I’m just concerned it will be an awful chore…” said Bain, who abstained from voting on the budget. “Businesses work on making a profit.”

The industrial garbage sector has been on the decline for years, Maodus said, with competition from Michigan landfills that charge as little as $9 per tonne compared to the $30 the Essex landfill levies.

Coun. Drew Dilkens made the budget proposal.

“If you don’t give someone a challenging goal they won’t do anything extraordinary,” he said of the EWSWA’s chances of increasing business. He recognized that if the proposal is unsuccessful, the board will have to revisit the budget.

“If they don’t (raise) the revenue we’ll have to figure out how we’ll cover that cost,” he said.

The meeting Tuesday was contentious, with City of Windsor councillors clashing with county representatives over the city mandate to have a freeze in its municipal allocation. They debated bringing in garbage from outside the region, raising the fees at the transfer station and closing the transfer stations one day a week.

Many motions failed for lack of support, especially a proposal to raise the fee to drop off garbage at the transfer station by $2 because city councillors rejected it. The dispute prompted Warden Tom Bain to demand city councillors stop playing games.

EWSWA staff had recommended the board increase municipal payments by 3.4 per cent or $350,000. The organization is already using $1 million from its rate stabilization fund to balance the budget and staff opposed dipping into reserves further. The increased costs for this year’s budget were due to higher debt payments for the landfill, less revenue from trash and declining prices for recyclable material. The EWSWA has a $21.6 million budget. About $10 million is revenue from garbage and recycled materials, $1 million will come from the rate stabilization fund, while municipalities pay the rest via a per population formula.

To get the rest of the savings board members cut $17,000 from the budget. They eliminated the development of a mobile phone application that would have allowed residents to view the waste diversion calendar and get general recycling information. The board also cut a $5,000 budget for board members to attend conferences.

The fee to drop off garbage at the transfer centres is going up by $1 to $4.

Find Windsor Star on Facebook]]>http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/waste-authority-has-to-find-more-garbage/feed0Files: Eli Maodus, general manager of the Essex-Windsor Solid Waste Authority, addresses city council at city hall in Windsor on Tuesday, June 7, 2011. (TYLER BROWNBRIDGE / The Windsor Star)winstarmonicaWaste authority looks to cuthttp://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/waste-authority-looks-to-cut
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/waste-authority-looks-to-cut#commentsThu, 07 Nov 2013 20:34:04 +0000http://blogs.windsorstar.com/?p=269404]]>The Essex Windsor Solid Waste Authority, which proposed a three per cent budget increase to shore up declining revenue, has been told to comb through its 2014 budget for savings.

The authority’s general manager Eli Maodus told the board the extra money — $350,000 — is needed to pay for a higher debt payment for the regional landfill, to cover declining garbage revenues and falling prices for recyclable material.

“We don’t have an expenditure problem, we have a revenue problem,” he said.

LaSalle Mayor Ken Antaya said a reduction in services would be a step backward.

“In these environmental sensitive times, we want to keep the services,” he said.

Many of the waste authority’s services are legislated by the province. For example the Environmental Protection Act says a municipality must pick up blue box recyclable materials half of the frequency of waste collection, which is weekly.

Maodus said staff will produce a report outlining ways so save money, including reducing operation times of the public drop-off depot in Windsor and the transfer station in Kingsville, which are both open six days a week.

Find Windsor Star on Facebook]]>http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/waste-authority-looks-to-cut/feed0File photo of a truck at the Essex-Windsor Solid Waste Authority facility in Windsor, Ont. (Windsor Star files)winstarmonicaPush on to encourage recycling in Essex Countyhttp://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/new-recycling-depot-opens
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/new-recycling-depot-opens#commentsMon, 30 Sep 2013 20:39:49 +0000http://blogs.windsorstar.com/?p=252161]]>A new regional recycling depot in Essex that opened last month represents one of the last pushes to divert recyclable materials from the landfill, officials said.

The Essex Windsor Solid Waste Authority has few options left to encourage recycling after the board rejected a kitchen waste recycling program this summer, officials said.

In Essex County 36.2 per cent of garbage is recycled, well below the 50 per cent level the waste authority wanted to achieve or the 42 per cent diverted in London or 53 per cent in Waterloo.

It’s been a year since the EWSWA started accepting mixed plastics like fruit containers and gave out 22-gallon blue bins to take the extra materials, but the blue box expansion has done little to improve the region’s diversion rate, said Cameron Wright, waste diversion manager.

While the recycling plant has seen a dramatic increase in plastic materials, the items are so light it hasn’t made a dent in the diversion rate, which is calculated by weight. In fact most packaging material is much lighter than it used to be, Wright said with aluminum replacing steel cans and plastic supplanting glass bottles.

“Mixed plastics are the changing face of the waste stream,” Wright said. “If we measured volume instead of weight, you’d see a different story in the blue box program.”

The new regional recycling depot at 7700 County Road 18 is one of three in the county. The others are in Windsor and Kingsville. The depot is at the regional landfill, but it will only accept recyclable material — it is banned by the province from accepting garbage from small vehicles.

The regional recycling depot will take blue and red box items but also recyclable items that can’t fit in the boxes like paint, televisions and other electronics, car parts and tires. For more information go to ewswa.org.

EWSWA general manager Eli Maodus said bag limits and reducing the frequency of garbage pickup died when a kitchen waste recycling stream was rejected.

“(Bag limits) aren’t appropriate unless you give people an option of what to do with the waste,” Maodus said. “What am I going to do without a green bin?”

Coun. Alan Halberstadt, who is on the waste authority board, disagrees and wants to push for bag limits so that residents are forced to recycle and compost kitchen waste in their backyards.

“There are arguments against (bag limits) like dumping, but other communities have done it and we could go to garbage collection every two weeks,” he said. “(Residents) could compost their own food. If they only get waste collection every two weeks, they are probably not going to like the odour that develops over those two weeks and they’d get into composting.”

Halberstadt, who owns a composter, said something must be done to jolt residents into action, otherwise they’ll continue what they are doing, which “is put everything in the garbage.”

Wright said he will propose a way next year to encourage residents to compost in a decentralized way. He suggested the waste authority could more heavily subsidize the purchase of composters and digesters. A composter costs about $35.

Find Windsor Star on Facebook]]>http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/new-recycling-depot-opens/feed0File photo of recyclable items. (Windsor Star files)winstarmonicaResident raises alarm over stray syringes on Lake Erie shorelinehttp://blogs.windsorstar.com/resident-raises-alarm-over-stray-syringes-on-lake-erie-shoreline
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/resident-raises-alarm-over-stray-syringes-on-lake-erie-shoreline#commentsThu, 08 Aug 2013 15:21:47 +0000http://blogs.windsorstar.com/?p=229497]]>After moving to Harrow in April, D.J. Meadows would occasionally stumble across a stray syringe while walking her dog along Belcrest Beach. But in the past two weeks, such incidents have become more than just occasional.

“One or two is one thing, but when you get close to a dozen, something’s not right,” Meadows said.

She said she’s found nine medical needles and half-dozen orange needle caps along the little piece of shoreline behind her house after a heavy rain storm hit two weeks ago. Not only is it unsettling, she said, it makes her wonder if someone or some part of the waste management chain isn’t doing their part to keep the lakes clean and safe.

“Can you imagine a little two- or three-year-old picking that up and playing with it?” she said. There are kids in the area and the syringes pose a hazard to the dogs too, she said.

Meadows said a doctor, who she went to see after stepping on one when wading into the water for a swim one day, told her the syringes appear to be the type used by diabetics for injections.

Officials from the health unit and the regional conservation authority said such a high number in a short period is indeed unusual.

Dr. Allen Heimann, medical officer of health at the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, said the health unit does get occasional calls about stray needles in parks, alleys or near dumpsters. “People unfortunately don’t dispose of needles in a safe manner,” Heimann said.

Health care providers use special needle disposal services and individuals who use medical needles regularly use special tamper-proof containers for used syringes that they then return to their pharmacist for safe disposal, he said.

The ones Meadows found probably did not come through untreated sewage water, Heimann said, since needles don’t make it into the sewage system. They likely originated on land, ending up in the water rather than making it to the landfill.

While these needles don’t pose a significant risk of infection for diseases such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C or HIV, he said, people nonetheless should exercise caution around them and see a doctor if they are accidentally hurt by one.

In Windsor-Essex, syringes are disposed of in different ways depending on which contractor handles the disposal, Heimann said. For example, Stericycle, which collects the syringes used at the public health unit’s clinics, ships them to a plant in Brampton, Ont., where they are sterilized, shredded and sent to an incinerator where they’re burned to generate energy.

The Star was not able to reach anyone at the Essex Windsor Solid Waste Authority to confirm whether any syringes are disposed of in the regular landfill or if they are all diverted.

Meadows said many of her neighbours are strangely casual about these stray needles even though she finds it alarming that so many would wash up in close succession. She said she’s also heard of people finding needles lately at Colchester and Crystal beaches.

Meadows wondered whether it would be possible to trace the syringes back to a particular place, such as a clinic, or disposal site. Her phone calls have led her from the Town of Essex to the local OPP detachment to two Ministry of the Environment offices and to the health unit. Someone there said they would look into it and let Meadows know if they could help in any way, she said.

In the meantime, Meadows and her husband are keeping a close eye on the beach, collecting any stray needles and caps when they go out for walks, which they usually do a few times each day.

“How many people have found one and not said anything?” she said. “If we just sit back and say there’s nothing we can do then nothing will ever get done.”

WHAT WASHES UP ON THE BEACH?“

The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup organizes volunteer-led beach cleanups each year across Canada, including in Windsor-Essex. In the last three cleanups in the region, there haven’t been any syringes reported, but cleanups don’t include all beaches in the area.

2012 most common items washing up onto Canadian beaches

Cigarette butts

Food wrappers

Plastic bags

Plastic caps and lids

Plastic bottles

D.J. Meadows is photographed on the Lake Erie beach near her home with a pair of syringes she found on the beach after a storm on Thursday, August 8, 2013. Meadows found a total of 9 needles on the beach and heard more were discovered along the nearby shoreline. (TYLER BROWNBRIDGE/The Windsor Star)

D.J. Meadows is photographed on the Lake Erie beach near her home with a pair of syringes she found on the beach after a storm on Thursday, August 8, 2013. Meadows found a total of 9 needles on the beach and heard more were discovered along the nearby shoreline. (TYLER BROWNBRIDGE/The Windsor Star)

D.J. Meadows stands on the Lake Erie beach near her home with a pair of syringes she found on the beach after a storm on Thursday, August 8, 2013. Meadows found a total of 9 needles on the beach and heard more were discovered along the nearby shoreline. (TYLER BROWNBRIDGE/The Windsor Star)

Find Windsor Star on Facebook]]>http://blogs.windsorstar.com/resident-raises-alarm-over-stray-syringes-on-lake-erie-shoreline/feed0D.J. Meadows is photographed on the Lake Erie beach near her home with a pair of syringes she found on the beach after a storm on Thursday, August 8, 2013. Meadows found a total of 9 needles on the beach and heard more were discovered along the nearby shoreline. (TYLER BROWNBRIDGE/The Windsor Star)winstarfantoniD.J. Meadows is photographed on the Lake Erie beach near her home with a pair of syringes she found on the beach after a storm on Thursday, August 8, 2013. Meadows found a total of 9 needles on the beach and heard more were discovered along the nearby shoreline. (TYLER BROWNBRIDGE/The Windsor Star)D.J. Meadows is photographed on the Lake Erie beach near her home with a pair of syringes she found on the beach after a storm on Thursday, August 8, 2013. Meadows found a total of 9 needles on the beach and heard more were discovered along the nearby shoreline. (TYLER BROWNBRIDGE/The Windsor Star)D.J. Meadows stands on the Lake Erie beach near her home with a pair of syringes she found on the beach after a storm on Thursday, August 8, 2013. Meadows found a total of 9 needles on the beach and heard more were discovered along the nearby shoreline. (TYLER BROWNBRIDGE/The Windsor Star)Electronic waste recyling business still on shaky groundhttp://blogs.windsorstar.com/business/electronic-waste-recyling-business-still-on-shaky-ground
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/business/electronic-waste-recyling-business-still-on-shaky-ground#commentsMon, 08 Jul 2013 16:42:03 +0000http://blogs.windsorstar.com/?p=215841]]>Standing in the middle of an old warehouse on Windsor’s west side, Chris Davies ponders the business case for recycling electronic equipment.

“Our costs are lower than most and we’re breaking even,” says the executive director of Computers for Kids, a charity that relies on a core of 30 volunteers and gives 500 refurbished computers a year to financially strapped Windsor and Essex County families.

It also collects more used electronics for recycling than any organization in Windsor and Essex County, except the solid waste authority.

How Ontario deals with all the electronic junk consumers and businesses are discarding has improved dramatically since Computers for Kids got off the ground in 2005, said Davies. The biggest shortcoming is the failure to encourage more refurbishing and reuse of equipment, he said.

Those on the business side of the electronics recycling industry see other serious flaws in the current system established in 2009 with the creation of Ontario Electronic Stewardship, which is funded and run by the manufacturers. It is one of three such industry organizations set up by Waste Diversion Ontario to develop recycling programs for the products they make.

To help cover the cost of recycling, consumers purchasing new electronics are grudgingly paying eco fees, which were increased as of May 1 for some items, such as larger television screens and monitors. There is also dismay at the other end of the equation from the recycling processors, which dismantle and shred computers, TVs and other electronic equipment for valuable materials they can sell.

“More material is being processed properly than before this program was put in place, but many businesses would argue it was a more stable marketplace before,” said Peter Hargreave, director of policy and strategy for the Ontario Waste Management Association.

The association, which represents private companies and municipalities that handle more than 85 per cent of the province’s waste, wants to see two major changes, he said. The first is a well enforced set of environmental standards for recycling operations. The second is elimination of the “cartels,” like OES, it says are stifling competition and not putting the onus on individual manufacturers to keep their products out of landfills.

Both are included in legislation proposed last month by Ontario Environment Minister Jim Bradley that would also see eco fees rolled into the price of recycled products. The new system would, however, take five years to implement even if the minority Liberal government managed to get it passed into law.

“These changes needed to come a long time ago,” said Hargreave. In the meantime, electronics recyclers that invested heavily in new equipment to deal with increased demand are teetering on the financial edge. A Hamilton processor recently went into receivership and another in the Toronto area could close its doors any day, he said.

Nearly all of Ontario’s major electronics recycling plants are in the Toronto area, but their financial future affects the municipal waste authorities and private industry collectors across the province that feed them.

The Essex-Windsor Solid Waste Authority recently reached a one-year agreement with Shift Recycling, which opened its Toronto area plant in 2010. The authority, which initially recycled electronics by sending them to Computers for Kids, began dealing with the OES two years ago, said manager of waste diversion Cameron Wright.

The OES was paying $165 a tonne for electronic recyclables. When the authority decided to put out a request for proposals to OES approved recyclers earlier this year, Shift Recycling came in with the highest bid – $420 a tonne.

“There are significant issues from the perspective of a municipality with this,” said Wright, who toured the Shift Recycling plant and was impressed with what he saw. Calls to the company were not returned.

There have been allegations that some companies may be sending items offshore and stockpiling difficult to recycle materials, like leaded glass and fire resistant plastic, said Hargreaves.

The waste authority’s Wright agrees that the current system needs improvement.

“I don’t believe it’s a system that’s encouraging these companies to design reusability or durability or even recyclability into their systems,” he said.

While the solid waste authority, at least for now, is getting a little more cash in its coffers for electronics, there is no financial incentive for consumers who choose to recycle.

There are a few small companies in the Windsor area that pay nominal amounts for used computers and other electronics, but Computers for Kids’ Davies questions how long that can last.

Larger local recycling and waste management companies that serve businesses that have hundreds of computers, TVs and other electronics to dispose of at once say the money they receive from recyclers basically covers the costs of sorting, packaging and hauling it.

“If you have large volumes you can do something. This is a volume driven business,” said Michael Pare, district manager for BFI Canada, which sorts, packages and hauls electronics to Shift Recycling for the solid waste authority.

Even Computers for Kids, which refurbishes computers, has to send most of what its donors provide to a Toronto area recycling plant, Davies said. It can rebuild 15-25 per cent of the computers it gets from businesses and only about five per cent of those the public brings in. Everything else is sent to be dismantled and shredded.

The money raised helps keep the doors open at Computers for Kids, which has only two paid staff members, Davies said.

When the charity started, most computers and electronics were ending up in in the trash. The push from the province has helped change that, but it is taking a long time, Davies said. “Even now that there are quite a few (electronics recycling) companies out there, some is still finding its way to the landfill.”

Volunteers and staff sort electronic devices out for recycling at Computers for Kids on Sandwich Street in Windsor. (JASON KRYK/The Windsor Star)

Electronics recycling Q & A

Q: How much electronic junk is collected?

A: Last year, the Essex-Windsor Solid Waste Authority collected 595 tonnes of electronic waste for recycling and Computers for Kids collected about 455 tonnes. (Compare that to 26,380 tonnes of the types of recyclables that are put out in blue and red boxes.)

Q: Where can I take drop off my electronic junk for free for recycling?

A: The waste authority’s public drop off depot on North Service Road in Windsor or its transfer station on Albuna Townline (County Rd. 31) in Kingsville; Computers for Kids at 4150 Sandwich St. in Windsor (cfkcanada.org); and any of the local businesses listed at recycleyourelectronics.ca. Check their websites to see what they will accept. There are no recycling programs for household appliances and children’s toys.

Q: Will anyone pay me for my electronic junk?

A: There are some local businesses offering money for used computers. At least one, Rose City Electronics Depot, is offering cash for other items, as well, though the owners did not return calls from The Star. If you are selling or giving away a used computer, make sure the hard drive has been wiped clean.

Find Windsor Star on Facebook]]>http://blogs.windsorstar.com/business/electronic-waste-recyling-business-still-on-shaky-ground/feed0Chris Davies, executive director for Computers for Kids, stands in front of some of the electronic waste the charity sends to be recycled. (JASON KRYK/The Windsor Star)winstarellenVolunteers and staff sort electronic devices out for recycling at Computers for Kids on Sandwich Street in Windsor. (JASON KRYK/The Windsor Star)